Tag Archives: agriculture

25 sneaky names for palm oil

by JanisWhatley Posted on November 10, 2015

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Collections of fairy tales Vietnam – Nguyen Luan

“THE LEGEND OF THE MILKY WAY THE SANDALWOOD MAIDEN THE HUNDRED-KNOT BAMBOO THE STORY OF TAM AND CAM THACH SANH – LY THONG SUE GOD FOR RAIN STORY OF KITCHEN GODS THE MOON BOY (CUOI) DRAGON'S CHILDREN, FAIRY'S GRAND CHILDREN THANH GIONG STORY OF WATER MELON HOUSE OF THE RISIN' SUN”

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America's most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog's Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of […]

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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draws a […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis – Instaread

PLEASE NOTE: This is a  summary and analysis  of the book and NOT the original book.  The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis   Inside this Instaread: Summary of entire book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Key Takeaways and Analysis of the Key Takeaways. […]

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Codex: Tau Empire (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

A dynamic race whose technology eclipses anything their foes can muster, the tau use speed, strategy and overwhelming firepower to win their battles. Guided by the mysterious Ethereal caste, all tau strive for the Greater Good of their empire, forging ever onward into the stars to assimilate or annihilate everything that stands in their path. […]

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White Dwarf Issue 93: 07th November 2015 (Tablet Edition) – White Dwarf

White Dwarf 93 arrives and the Heresy begins! The brand-new Betrayal at Calth boxed game brings us the first ever plastic Space Marine miniatures for the Horus Heresy and we take a look, with New Releases, Paint Splatter, a play-through the game in ‘The Wrath of Veridia’ and a special background feature in ‘The Seeds […]

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Projects for Kids – Authors and Editors of Instructables

21 Projects Guaranteed to Keep Your Kids Occupied This Weekend give you full step-by-step instructions for 21 amazing kids activities that your family will love.  Learn how to entertain your kids with the DoodleBot360, LED Throwies, Grow Your Own Magic Crystal Tree, the Marshmallow Shooter and other projects that are sure to hold your child's […]

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The Cannabis Grow Bible – Greg Green

The definitive guide to growing marijuana just got better! Greg Green's original Cannabis Grow Bible set a new standard for handbooks on cannabis horticulture and established Green as the leading authority in the field. Green's comprehensive and professionally presented work on how to cultivate superior cannabis struck a chord with beginner, amateur and professional growers […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel's Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]

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See original article here – 

25 sneaky names for palm oil

Posted in bamboo, cannabis, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, growing marijuana, horticulture, Jason, LAI, LG, Monterey, ONA, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 25 sneaky names for palm oil

Watch the Government Shoot Thousands of Moths Out of a Drone

by BonnyRebell91 Posted on October 6, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Pink bollworms are a species of pest (they’re baby moths) that love to feast on cotton. They’ve been largely eliminated from the United States, but flare-ups do occur now and then, causing an expensive headache for farmers. So the US Department of Agriculture is experimenting with an innovative but also kind of weird and gross solution, which you can see in the video above.

The process starts by raising bollworms in a lab that are fed a red, oil-based dye. When the bollworms mature into moths, the coloration stays with them, so they can be distinguished from wild moths. The lab moths are blasted with radiation, which makes them sterile. Then they’re released into the wild over fields with bollworm infestations. When the sterile lab moths mate with the wild ones, they’re tricked into thinking they’re going to reproduce, but don’t. So no new moths.

Scientists have experimented with releasing sterile moths for the last few years. But now, they’ve enlisted a new tool: drones equipped with moth cannons. Anytime a bollworm infestation pops up, just call in a drone to deliver a few thousand irradiated moths.

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Watch the Government Shoot Thousands of Moths Out of a Drone

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Forget insecticides. Scientists are making pests that destroy themselves

by LauriBruner Posted on August 31, 2015

Forget insecticides. Scientists are making pests that destroy themselves

By on 31 Aug 2015commentsShare

Let’s get this right out in the open: Scientists are genetically engineering moths to self destruct. I know, I know — sounds pretty mad scientist-y. But consider this: Those moths are wreaking havoc on sauerkraut-destined cabbage, kale, and other super-hip cruciferous super foods. So either the moths go, or you have to start microwaving leftover rice and hot sauce for lunch like everyone else.

Now that I’ve got your attention, pop open a jar of that artisanal sauerkraut and let’s begin. Diamondback moths are kind of the Incredible Hulks of the pest world. Try to kill them with a single pesticide, and they’ll just develop resistance and grow stronger. Farmers try to work around this by deploying multiple pesticides in rotation, but even then, the moths remain a stubborn foe. Here’s more from the New York Times:

An invasive species, the diamondback moth was once a minor nuisance. It became an agricultural headache in the late 1940s as chemical pesticide use exploded. The moth, the first crop pest to evolve resistance to DDT, multiplied as feebler competitors died off.

Today, the pest is found where kale, broccoli, Chinese cabbage and other cabbage cousins grow. Hungry caterpillars that hatch from eggs laid on the plants cost farmers an estimated $5 billion a year worldwide. And the diamondback moth continues to adapt to new generations of pesticides. In Malaysia, it is immune to all synthetic sprays.

OK — so chemicals don’t work. And the moths’ natural foe, wasps, are even less effective than chemicals, the Times reports. Desperate, scientists even tried sterilizing the suckers back in the ’90s using gamma radiation — something that totally screwed the unfortunately named screwworm — but that didn’t work either, according to the Times.

Fresh out of ideas, scientists at Cornell and the British biotech company Oxitec pieced together a gene that makes female moths dependent on an antibiotic for survival. That way, when they’re out in the wild, the females die before reaching reproductive age, the Times reports. (If the feminist in you is angry that the self-destruction works only on females, take comfort in knowing that the gene leaves a bunch of adult males without anyone to bang.)

Not surprisingly, these mutant moths have sparked some controversy. Here’s more from the Times:

Groups opposed to the use of genetically modified organisms worry that the protein made by the synthetic gene could harm wildlife that eat the moths.

“We would argue that more information should be collected,” said Helen Wallace, the director of GeneWatch U.K.

Haydn Parry, the chief executive of Oxitec, says the company addressed this concern and others in data submitted to the Department of Agriculture.

“We fed the protein to mosquitoes, fish, beetles, spiders and parasitoids,” he said. “It’s nontoxic.”

Scientists at Cornell are currently testing the effectiveness of the gene by putting modified moths and wild moths together in outdoor cages. Anyone concerned about mutant moths wandering around organic fields where they don’t belong needn’t worry, the Times says:

Studies suggest the likelihood of diamondback moths straying is low. Wild moths released into the open tend to stay put as long as they have food and company. Any that do venture farther afield are likely to be wiped out by New York’s cold winter.

Even if strays are found, legal experts say that national organic standards penalize only the deliberate use of a genetically modified organism.

And fortunately, the researchers at Oxitec equipped the moths with a gene from coral that makes them glow red under ultraviolet light, so if they do get out, they’ll be easy to spot (assuming most farmers are also aspiring crime scene investigators).

Just like those mosquitos modified for self destruction down South, these moths will face a lot of scientific and societal barriers before gaining acceptance in the agriculture world. Still, they’re slated for a test run in a small cabbage patch next summer, so it’s worth considering how you feel about them now. Personally, I’m not too torn up about scientists tinkering with disease-carrying mosquitos, and if it means less insecticide use, mutant moths don’t sound so bad either, especially considering they’re kind of wired for self destruction already.

Source:

Replacing Pesticides With Genetics

, The New York Times.

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Forget insecticides. Scientists are making pests that destroy themselves

Posted in Anchor, Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Forget insecticides. Scientists are making pests that destroy themselves

Breaking News: Kids Don’t Like to Eat Vegetables

by AdelePlatz Posted on August 26, 2015

Mother Jones

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Excellent news! We have new research on whether kids like to eat vegetables:

The Agriculture Department rolled out new requirements in the 2012 school year that mandated that children who were taking part in the federal lunch program choose either a fruit or vegetable with their meals.

….”The basic question we wanted to explore was: does requiring a child to select a fruit or vegetable actually correspond with consumption. The answer was clearly no,” Amin, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.

This will come as a surprise to exactly zero parents. You can (usually) make your kids eat vegetables if you refuse to let them leave the table until they do, but that’s what it takes. Ask my mother if you don’t believe me.1

I’m not actually making fun of the researchers here. Sometimes seemingly obvious things turn out to be untrue. The only way to find out for sure is to check. And in fact, the study actually did produce interesting results:

Because they were forced to do it, children took fruits and vegetables — 29 percent more in fact. But their consumption of fruits and vegetables actually went down 13 percent after the mandate took effect and, worse, they were throwing away a distressing 56 percent more than before. The waste each child (or tray) was producing went from a quarter of a cup to more than a 39 percent of a cup each meal. In many cases, the researchers wrote, “children did not even taste the fruits and vegetables they chose at lunch.”

Yep: when kids were required to plonk fruits and vegetables onto their trays, average consumption went down from 0.51 cups to 0.45 cups. Apparently sticking it to the man becomes more attractive when kids are forced to do something.

In any case, the researchers kept a brave face, suggesting that eventually the mandates would work. We just need “other strategies” to get kids to like eating vegetables:

Because children prefer FVs in the form of 100% fruit juice or mixed dishes, such as pizza or lasagna, one should consider additional factors, such as the types of whole FVs offered and how the cafeteria staff prepares them. Cutting up vegetables and serving them with dip and slicing fruit, such as oranges and apples, can positively influence students’ FV selection and consumption by making FVs more accessible and appealing.

I dunno. Cutting up veggies and serving them with dip decidedly doesn’t make them taste anything like pizza or lasagna. I speak from decades of pizza-eating experience here. Anyway, parents have been trying to get their kids to eat their vegetables for thousands of years, and so far progress has been poor. I’m not sure what the answer is. Shock collars? DNA splicing? GMO veggies that taste like candy bars?

1Yeah, yeah, some kids actually like vegetables. Little bootlickers.

Original link: 

Breaking News: Kids Don’t Like to Eat Vegetables

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Irradiated Food Sounds Like a Terrible Thing. It’s Actually Really Good.

by BrettBible Posted on August 24, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>
Mattias Mackler

In 2002, the East Coast supermarket chain Wegmans introduced a line of packaged ground beef that had been irradiated with an electron beam to kill bacteria. Company executives expected the product to do well; a series of foodborne illness outbreaks had rendered Americans’ confidence in food safety dismally low. The launch came at the start of grilling season, and executives thought it would be a hit with people who liked their burgers rare but didn’t want to get sick from undercooked meat. The slogan: “Cook it the way you like it!”

But to their surprise, sales were unimpressive—and they remain so today, says Wegmans’ meat merchandising manager, Mark Spagnola. One reason might be the higher price: Irradiated beef can cost as much as 80 cents more per pound. But Wegmans’ customers are willing to pay a premium for other special foods, like organics. So more likely, it’s irradiation itself that put shoppers off. Many consumer surveys have found that people consider irradiation—which the federal government approved for some foods as early as the 1960s—creepy and unsafe. “Some people even think their food is going to be radioactive,” Spagnola says, “which is just totally not how this works.”

Here’s how it does work: At a special irradiation plant—there are just a handful in the United States—workers zap food with a machine similar to the kind that administers radiation to cancer patients. Most facilities use electron beams, but some irradiate with X-rays or gamma rays. While the dose of radiation is high, it doesn’t stay with the food—and workers are protected from it with safety gear and massive concrete walls. The result, says Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota foodborne illness expert who has studied irradiation extensively, is that it kills as many bacteria as cooking at high temperatures—but without any loss of taste. “Food irradiation shows absolutely no detrimental impact on the food,” he says.

Hundreds of studies have proved that irradiation neither adds compounds to food nor takes nutrients away—and that it can help prevent the foodborne illnesses that sicken 48 million Americans and kill 3,000 every year. The World Health Organization and the US Department of Agriculture have deemed the technology safe for food, as has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which asserts that in addition to eliminating dangerous bacteria in human food, the technique could also be used to prevent the spread of disease in livestock through its feed.

Yet some food advocacy groups have campaigned vociferously against the technique. Food and Water Watch, for example, argues that it might induce manufacturers to zap food instead of maintaining a clean plant. “This could be a gateway to faster line speeds at meat facilities and sloppier handling practices,” says Patty Lovera, the organization’s assistant director. But Rick Holley, a food microbiologist and irradiation expert at the University of Manitoba, sees the technique as an extra tool, rather than a crutch; irradiation, he points out, doesn’t get rid of all bacteria, just most. “You can’t make bad food good using irradiation,” he says. “If your plant is dirty and not inspected and overtaxed, the food is going to be bad in a way that irradiation can’t fix.”

In fact, you’re probably already eating irradiated products. About a third of dried herbs and spices are irradiated to prevent salmonella, and imported fruits like mangoes and papayas are sometimes zapped to kill invasive insects. The technique is also used to sterilize medical equipment like gloves, bandages, and syringes, as well as personal-care products like contact lens solution and baby bottle nipples. Several European countries regularly irradiate all kinds of food; the French even do it to Camembert cheese so as to cut down on pathogens from raw milk. In South Africa, safari operators eat irradiated meat because it has a long shelf life, even in hot climates.

To be sure, the technology isn’t cheap—but that, says Harlan Clemmons, who runs an irradiation facility in Sioux City, Iowa, is mostly because it costs a lot of money to ship all that meat to the special plants. Although the equipment is expensive (about $18 million up front), Clemmons calculates that if meat processors did irradiation in-house, over time they could bring the cost down “to next to nothing.”

But that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon unless consumers start embracing the technique—which might require more public attention. In a 2005 study, 484 shoppers at grocery stores in four Texas towns were asked about their opinion of irradiated foods. Then they read material about how an electron beam works and watched a short video on the topic. Initially, about 18 percent of the shoppers described themselves as “doubters” or “rejecters” of irradiation. But after the statements and video, that number dwindled to just 3.8 percent. Osterholm likens the public mistrust of irradiation to the anti-vaccine movement. “We know that we could eliminate many food safety problems with this technique,” he says. “And yet people are still fighting it.”

View this article – 

Irradiated Food Sounds Like a Terrible Thing. It’s Actually Really Good.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, Oster, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Irradiated Food Sounds Like a Terrible Thing. It’s Actually Really Good.

This Chart Shows How Many People in Your State Are Eating Enough Fruits and Vegetables

by Felipa6408 Posted on July 21, 2015

Mother Jones

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Bring out the carrots! According to a new report from the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 13 percent of Americans eat enough fruit, and 9 percent eat enough vegetables.

Researchers analyzed data from a 2013 study of nearly 400,000 adults across the country, and compared their answers to the US Department of Agriculture’s daily intake recommendations. The guidelines suggest that adults who work out less than 30 minutes per day eat about 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit per day and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables. (A cup of fruit is equivalent to a small apple, a cup of vegetables is about a dozen baby carrots.)

The vast majority of Americans didn’t make the cut, though answers did vary state by state. States in the South tended to have the lowest level of consumption, with only 5.5 percent of adults in Mississippi meeting veggie recommendations and 7.5 percent of adults in Tennessee eating enough fruits. States on the coast fared slightly better, with California topping both lists.

Latetia Moore, the lead author, says that in order to improve the rates, fruits and vegetables must be more affordable and convenient to buy. “Fruits and vegetables need to be competitively priced, strategically placed, and creatively promoted wherever we obtain our food,” she wrote in an email. Particularly important to target, she said, are child care facilities, schools, and work sites.

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This Chart Shows How Many People in Your State Are Eating Enough Fruits and Vegetables

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Why did the 700 goats cross the road? (video)

by KathleneSecrest Posted on June 19, 2015

green4us

How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]

iTunes Store
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

iTunes Store
White Dwarf Issue 73: 20th June 2015 – White Dwarf

About the series  White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s weekly magazine, and boasts a wealth of great content, from the latest new releases to modelling and painting guides, gaming features, new rules and much more besides.

iTunes Store
White Dwarf Issue 72: 13th June 2015 – White Dwarf

The Librarius has a new tome – White Dwarf 72! Ushered in by the brand new Space Marine Librarian in Terminator armour, this issue brings you a look at the psychic might of the Adeptus Astartes in our Psychic Warfare feature (not to mention rules for the new Librarius Conclave!), a quite incredible look at […]

iTunes Store
Codex: Dark Angels (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The First Legion of old, the Dark Angels have fought in the Emperor’s name for ten thousand years. Yet within the shrouded ranks of the Chapter there lurks an ancient secret, one so terrible that should it ever be revealed it would mean damnation for the Chapter.   Codex: Dark Angels is your comprehensive guide […]

iTunes Store
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis – Instaread

PLEASE NOTE: This is a  summary and analysis  of the book and NOT the original book.  The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis   Inside this Instaread: Summary of entire book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Key Takeaways and Analysis of the Key Takeaways. […]

iTunes Store
Codex: Space Marines (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The Space Marines are the Angels of Death, humanity’s finest warriors. Clad in the greatest armour and armed with awesomely destructive weapons, they defend the Imperium of Mankind from the alien, the traitor and the daemon. Codex: Space Marines is the most comprehensive guide ever to these superlative warriors. It contains all the rules and […]

iTunes Store
The Billionaire’s Vinegar – Benjamin Wallace

“Part detective story, part wine history, this is one juicy tale, even for those with no interest in the fruit of the vine. . . . As delicious as a true vintage Lafite.” —BusinessWeek The Billionaire’s Vinegar , now a New York Times bestseller , tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly […]

iTunes Store
Sons of Ultramar: Ultramarines Painting Guide – Games Workshop

Paragons of the Codex Astartes, the Ultramarines stand tall amongst the defenders of the Imperium. Skilled in war and veterans of countless battles, they have fought to preserve the Emperor’s domain for more than ten thousand years. The Ultramarines fashion their strike forces to meet the needs of war – fielding anything from the massed […]

iTunes Store
White Dwarf Issue 71: 06th June 2015 – White Dwarf

A devastatingly good new issue of White Dwarf blasts in with the Space Marine Devastators! The heavy weapons specialists of the Adeptus Astartes receive this stunning new kit, and we’ve got a first look and stage-by-stage painting guide (not to mention a few surprising tidbits in The Week in White Dwarf). Our special Insignium Astartes […]

iTunes Store

Continued here: 

Why did the 700 goats cross the road? (video)

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why did the 700 goats cross the road? (video)

DDT exposure quadruples breast cancer risk

by TobyNorthmore Posted on June 17, 2015

green4us

How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]

iTunes Store
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

iTunes Store
White Dwarf Issue 73: 20th June 2015 – White Dwarf

About the series  White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s weekly magazine, and boasts a wealth of great content, from the latest new releases to modelling and painting guides, gaming features, new rules and much more besides.

iTunes Store
White Dwarf Issue 72: 13th June 2015 – White Dwarf

The Librarius has a new tome – White Dwarf 72! Ushered in by the brand new Space Marine Librarian in Terminator armour, this issue brings you a look at the psychic might of the Adeptus Astartes in our Psychic Warfare feature (not to mention rules for the new Librarius Conclave!), a quite incredible look at […]

iTunes Store
Codex: Dark Angels (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The First Legion of old, the Dark Angels have fought in the Emperor’s name for ten thousand years. Yet within the shrouded ranks of the Chapter there lurks an ancient secret, one so terrible that should it ever be revealed it would mean damnation for the Chapter.   Codex: Dark Angels is your comprehensive guide […]

iTunes Store
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis – Instaread

PLEASE NOTE: This is a  summary and analysis  of the book and NOT the original book.  The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis   Inside this Instaread: Summary of entire book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Key Takeaways and Analysis of the Key Takeaways. […]

iTunes Store
Codex: Space Marines (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The Space Marines are the Angels of Death, humanity’s finest warriors. Clad in the greatest armour and armed with awesomely destructive weapons, they defend the Imperium of Mankind from the alien, the traitor and the daemon. Codex: Space Marines is the most comprehensive guide ever to these superlative warriors. It contains all the rules and […]

iTunes Store
The Billionaire’s Vinegar – Benjamin Wallace

“Part detective story, part wine history, this is one juicy tale, even for those with no interest in the fruit of the vine. . . . As delicious as a true vintage Lafite.” —BusinessWeek The Billionaire’s Vinegar , now a New York Times bestseller , tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly […]

iTunes Store
Sons of Ultramar: Ultramarines Painting Guide – Games Workshop

Paragons of the Codex Astartes, the Ultramarines stand tall amongst the defenders of the Imperium. Skilled in war and veterans of countless battles, they have fought to preserve the Emperor’s domain for more than ten thousand years. The Ultramarines fashion their strike forces to meet the needs of war – fielding anything from the massed […]

iTunes Store
White Dwarf Issue 71: 06th June 2015 – White Dwarf

A devastatingly good new issue of White Dwarf blasts in with the Space Marine Devastators! The heavy weapons specialists of the Adeptus Astartes receive this stunning new kit, and we’ve got a first look and stage-by-stage painting guide (not to mention a few surprising tidbits in The Week in White Dwarf). Our special Insignium Astartes […]

iTunes Store

Link:

DDT exposure quadruples breast cancer risk

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Monterey, ONA, organic, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on DDT exposure quadruples breast cancer risk

We’ll All Eat Less Meat Soon—Like It or Not

by VedaChapman7 Posted on June 10, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The great bulk of American beef comes from cows that have been fattened in confined yards with thousands of of their peers, munching a diet of corn, soybeans, and chemical additives. Should the feedlot model, innovated in the United States in the middle of the 20th century, continue its global spread—or is it better to raise cows on pasture, eating grass?

The question is critical, because global demand for animal flesh is on the rise, driven by growing appetites for meat in developing countries, where per capita meat consumption stands at about a third of developed-world levels.

In a much-shared interview on the website of the Breakthrough Institute, Washington State University researcher Judith Capper informs us that the US status quo is the way forward. “If we switched to all grass-fed beef in the United States, it would require an additional 64.6 million cows, 131 million acres more land, and 135 million more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “We’d have the same amount of beef, but with a huge environmental cost.”

I agree with Capper that it would be a disaster to empty the feedlots and put all of the hungry cows out to pasture—that, at current levels of beef production, finding enough grass to feed every cow that now relies on copious supplies of corn would likely prove impossible.

But there’s a deeper question that Capper doesn’t look at: Is the feedlot system itself sustainable? That is, can we keep stuffing animals—not just cows but also chickens and pigs—into confinements and feeding them gargantuan amounts of corn and soybeans? And can other countries mimic that path, as China is currently?

The answer, plainly, is no, according to the eminent ecologist Vaclav Smil in a 2014 paper. Smil notes that global meat production has risen from less than 55 million tons in 1950 to more than 300 million tons in 2010—a nearly six-fold increase in 60 years. “But this has been a rather costly achievement because mass-scale meat production is one of the most environmentally burdensome activities,” he writes, and then proceeds to list off the problems: it requires a large-scale shift from diversified farmland and rainforests to “monocultures of animal feed,” which triggered massive soil erosion, carbon emissions, and coastal “dead zones” fed by fertilizer runoff. Also, concentrating animals tightly together produces “huge volumes of waste,” more than can be recycled into nearby farmland, creating noxious air and water pollution. Moreover, it’s “inherently inefficient” to feed edible grains to farm animals, when we could just eat the grain, Smil adds.

This ruinous system would have to be scaled up to if present trends in global meat demand continue, Smil writes—reaching 412 million tons of meat in 2030, 500 million tons in 2050, and 577 million tons in 2080, according to projections from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Such a carnivorous future is “possible but it is neither rational nor sustainable”—it will ultimately destroy the ecosystems on which it relies.

Smil is no anti-meat crusader. He acknowledges that “human evolution has been closely linked in many fundamental ways to the killing of animals and eating their meat.” But the rise of the feedlot has provided much more meat than is necessary nutritionally—Americans consume on average about 209 pounds of meat per year, while a “wealth of evidence confirms” that bit less than 100 pounds is “compatible with good health and high longevity.”

He calculates that such a level could be achieved globally, without the ecosystem destruction built into the status quo meat production model. Rather than gobble up stuff we could eat like corn and soybeans, farm animals should be fed solely crop residues and food waste. And rather than be crammed into concentrated feedlots, they should be kept on pasture in rotation with food crops. Managing meet production that way, he calculates, would generate more 200 million tons of meat per year—about enough, he calculates, to provide the globe with sufficient meat for optimal health.

Of course, massive challenges stand between Smil’s vision and reality. For one, it would require people in industrialized countries like the United States to cut their meat consumption by half or more, even as consumption in Asia and Africa rises to roughly equal levels. Then, of course, there are the massive globe-spanning meat companies like US-owned Tyson, Brazil-owned JBS, and China’s Smithfield that have a huge stake in defending the status quo.

But ramping up the current system to provide the entire globe with US levels carnivory is hard to fathom, too. If it happens, “there is no realistic possibility of limiting the combustion of fossil fuels and moderating the rate of global climate change,” Smil writes. In other words, like it or not, it’s probably time to get used to eating less meat—pushed by the climate crisis, industrialized societies may have little choice but to ramp down meat production along lines suggested by Smil.

Meanwhile, US meat consumption, long among the very highest in the world, is waning, if slowly. The total annual slaughter peaked at 9.5 billion animals in 2009, and dropped to 9.1 billion by 2013. Interestingly, Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm-animal protection of the the Humane Society of the United States, told me that that the decrease reflects meat eaters’ cutting back, not any turn to abstention—the percentage of vegetarians and vegans among the population has “remained relatively stable” in recent years, he said. (See my colleague Gabrielle Canon’s list of the most common ways in which meat eaters justify their diet here.)

If we can continue this trend, the feedlot, which looks hyper-efficient at mass-producing meat only if you ignore a host of environmental liabilities, may yet prove to be a passing fad.

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We’ll All Eat Less Meat Soon—Like It or Not

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How this seedbank saved its precious seeds from Syria’s civil war (Video)

by VictoriHulett Posted on April 22, 2015

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How this seedbank saved its precious seeds from Syria’s civil war (Video)

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LG, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How this seedbank saved its precious seeds from Syria’s civil war (Video)